Good weight gain for preemies??

Just curious...I know there are a lot of people recently discharged from the hospital and wanted to know what your Neo felt was "good" weight gain while in the hospital. My twins gain about 2 ounces each...daily. I feel like this is excessive (almost a pound a week!!) but it may be just me. Just wanted to know what the average weight gain was for your preemie.

Oh...they are 27 weekers, get fed 8x a day (breast milk with 24 cal fortifier) and they are currently 4lbs, 2oz and 4lbs, 12oz.

Comments (14)

well i'll tell ya that they've been gaining so much because of the 24cal fortifier... my girls were only on 22cal... but they were gaining weight at the same rate as a termie... about 1oz/day... and my pediatrician was stunned and very happy about the weight gain... but he told us that he may keep them on the 22cal til they're either 3-4 months old, but they're currently 8w today (born at 33w4d)... we got back to the pedi o tuesday, so i'll try to remember to post how much they've gained in the past month... at 1mon they were 5lb1 and 5lb4 and had gained about a pound each over 2 weeks (so roughly an ounce a day)... and now it's been a whole month, so i'm curious to see if they're close to 7lb babies now... they feel like it and definitely had a growth spurt a few weeks ago and got super long

My twins are on 22 cal and also gain about 1 ounce a day or a pound every two weeks. They were on 24 cal for a while but the came back down to 22 cal before coming home. My 28 weekers (37 weeks now gestational age) weigh 6 LBS 5 OZ and 5 LBS 9 OZ.

my DD was on 30 cals at once, yes i said 30 :P She had a hard time growing. She would gain anywhere for 3-7 ounces every time she was weighed which was every mon and thurs. Her mixture was so thick that the nurses called it a milk shake. So we had the opposite problem you have. In the 3 months she was in the hospital she went from 1 pound 7 ounces to 5 pounds 13 ounces and that was on really high calorie formula. She worked for every ounce she got :)

My son is on the Neosure 22 cal formula and has been since he came home, he was on fortifed breastmilk at the hospital but we had no luck with him latching so I kind of gave up on getting him to breastfeed and got tired of pumping. Anyways he left the NICU May 21st and since then hes been gaining roughly 2 1/2-3 lbs every month. Which amazes me and scares me all at the same time. I am always asking if its ok for him to be gaining like that. He left the NICU weighing 4lbs 15oz on May 21st and as of July 28th weighed in at 11lbs 6oz. I was shocked! My nutritionist from ECI thinks the pedi will take him off the Neosure soon. He has his 4 month shots this month so I am going to ask about it. When my nutritionist charted him he no longer charts as a preemie and has caught up! YAY! Oh yeah I forgot to mention when he was born he weighed 3lbs 3oz and his lowest weight was 3lbs. So in 3 1/2 months hes gained over 8lbs! My lil chunkie!

My LO was quite a gainer as well (still is), and our Neo put her on straight BM once she made it past 4 lbs because she was gaining so quickly on the fortified milk in the NICU (she came home not long after, at 4 lbs 10 oz). She was 2lbs 5oz when born (with IUGR), and 17 weeks later (7 weeks adjusted) she is now somewhere around 10 1/2 lbs (on straight BM only). She loves to eat and we literally have to make her stop and try to distract her sometimes because she is so hungry. And trust me...she gets more than enough. :) I worry sometimes that she may be taking in too much but the ped isn't worried and we don't let her take in more than 30 oz a day (per the ped), and she actually averages around 24-28. I think it's the growth spurt days that she gets mad about being limited. We had a NICU nurse tell us that sometimes the really small and/or IUGR babies seem to try to make up for lost time with their eating. She did say it's only temporary, and that the feverish eating will eventually normalize, and now I wish I had asked her how temporary. GL to your twins!

My 33weeker now 7weeks actual gets 22cal goodstart and he gains about a pound a week. He is now 7 lbs 2 ounces and once he hits 10lbs I am going to stop making the formula with more calories and just give him teh regular 20cal mix. It a personnal decision I feel is best for my baby. I say if your little one is gaining weight like a champ then why not cut back on the calories if they are getting big at least 8lbs.

That sounds AMAZING for me!! lol. My LO was lucky to gain 1 ounce a day on 30-calorie feeds. Weight gain has always been tough for us. I think in the NICU they wanted to see an average of 1/2 to 1 ounce gain a day. More then that and they would be worried about fluid retention in his lungs b/c he had BPD pretty bad.

You know, I understand your concern. I couldn't believe how much they would pump into Addie in the NICU, and for the most part, she gained so well it wasn't funny. After being on TPN for around 10 days, and losing nearly a pound to a NEC scare, she was started on 24cal with BM, and she gained, and gained, and gained. I think she went from 3lb10oz at 34wks back to birth weight in a week or less (4lb5oz). She came home at 37wks at 5lb10oz. She came home on 22cal, but within a month, she was off. my ped couldn't believe just how much the little piggy had gained. She hasn't stopped since (gaining AND eating). They'll need that extra weight if they're not bottle feeding yet, but if they are, maybe it might be time to go down to 22cal? I'd ask if that's something they would consider soon.

For us it was ANY weight gain! Parker wouldn't gain weight even up to 27 cal! he lost over a pound from birth and finally gained .5 oz! then another .5 oz! And then we were discharged. He stayed in limbo several times, and even still does. He's back in limbo again, but they are finding GI is the reason... We're up to 22 pounds at 8 months!!! WOO HOO!! Far cry from my stick figure he started as! :)